11-Year-Old Singer Explains 'Worst National Anthem' Rendition

Eleven-year-old Harper Gruzins practiced "The Star-Spangled Banner"
for weeks, but spectators showed little appreciation when she performed
it Saturday at a Major League Soccer game in Dallas.

About 22,000
fans inside the stadium offered some polite applause, and a few boos,
but the reaction online has been swift and harsh.

The blog Deadspin
called it "the worst national anthem rendition ever," and people on
Twitter weren't any kinder. Some Tweets characterized her performance as
"tragic," while another said it was worse than that of Roseanne Barr's,
who sang the anthem off-key at a baseball game in 1990, then grabbed
her crotch and spat.

She acknowledges that it "wasn't my best performance," but told ABC News' Ryan Owens in an interview that the sound of some fans' horns threw her off-key. (Harper re-sang the national anthem for "GMA" at her home. Click here for the video).

"I
started to sing and was like, 'That's the wrong key.' Once you start
the national anthem, you don't want to start over and humiliate
yourself," she said.

Her parents rushed to her defense.

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"Things people are saying are really heartbreaking. And just mean. Spiteful and mean," her mother, Kelli Gruzins, said.

Her father, Karlis Gruzins, said the reaction has been hard to handle.

"What
I feel like doing is just unplug her, take her out of everything and
just protect her. Hide her. Keep her from people hurting her," he said.

Other far more famous singers have also taken heat for botching the national anthem, which is famously hard to sing.

In January, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler endured countless jabs after screaming the song before an NFL game.

In
July, country music singer Luke Bryan apologized for reading the words
to the anthem off his hand while singing at the Major League Baseball
All-Star game.